Siblings describe comfort found in faith after losing father in Beirut Port explosion

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

"We are not alone and we have a Church, the Catholic Church of Christ, standing and 'holding' us and the Lebanese people."

In an interview with Vatican News after the audience Pope Francis held on August 26 with relatives of those killed in the 2020 Beirut port explosion, Elie Hasrouty and his sister, Tatiana, shared their experience of faith following the death of their father, Ghassan, who was Head of Operations in the Beirut Port Silos.

2020 Port Explosion

During the encounter, the Holy Father met with a 30-person delegation consisting of families of victims of the devastating blast, showing his closeness, invoking peace in the Middle East and expressing solidarity in their quest for truth and justice.

The detonation of a massive quantity of highly explosive material that had been improperly stored in a warehouse at the city’s port had caused the explosion that killed over 200 people, injuring thousands, and causing extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure throughout Beirut.

The tragedy brought to light issues of corruption, mismanagement, and negligence, and related investigations into the incident, revealed failures at multiple levels of government and port authorities, all elements contributing to ongoing political and social distress in the Middle Eastern nation.

No closure

"Still, after four years, we don't have any closure," Elie, an engineer, lamented, adding, "we cannot grieve," as too many open questions and a lack of justice remain.

"We don't have institutions working normally in Beirut," he said, saying the "institutions failed to do their work to protect human dignity and serve the people."

However, Elie describes his audience with Pope Francis as a source of consolation, which, he noted, enables him to push past quests for justice, and instead "learn from tragedies" for the betterment of the country and future generations.

Lebanese 'responsible for future'

"The Lebanese should be responsible for the future, not playing always the role of the victim," he remarked. While certainly acknowledging countless victims of the crises, and those who faced heartbreak from the Port disaster, he implored others to join in a certain "responsible" and "shared responsibility," which he said, the Church is living out by working concretely to support communities and the good of all.

"It was a great privilege, and a critically important message to Lebanon and to the Lebanese people," he said, "that we are not alone, and we have a Church, the Catholic Church of Christ, standing and 'holding' us and the Lebanese people."

Hope through the Church's support

"What really gives me hope," he revealed, "is the Church itself, which has endured two thousand years of going through just about everything." For this reason, with his faith, he suggested, he is able to maintain hope as Christ can heal and endure all things.

The Lebanese man also responded to how the Pope's closeness to Lebanon, the Land of Cedars, his years of appeals, and his words to the victims' relatives at Monday morning's audience with relatives have been a meaningful source of comfort.

Likewise, Tatiana, a 23-year-old aspiring attorney currently completing her studies in Milan, acknowledged that amid the difficulties, one must push forward.

"It important to know," she said, "that it doesn't stop here and we are people of faith."

Pope and Church's closeness to Lebanon

"Four years later, it's important for the Lebanese people and the world to see," she highlighted, "that the Pope and the Church actually know what's happening in the world, and actually care about it."

"With the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza," she observed that "sometimes people move interest to more influential matters and wars, rather than ones that happened before."

Therefore, she said, "having Pope Francis listen to us and actually give his condolences is something very important on a personal level and on the national level because it demonstrates again how he really cares about Lebanon and actually knows what is happening there."

Amid the volatile situation, especially amid the War in the Holy Land, she suggested, there is a way the country can work toward reconstruction.

'Lebanon, a project for peace'

The Pope, she said, recalled that "Lebanon is becoming like a battlefield in the war, and like Pope John Paul II said, 'it's a project of peace." This is very important, she underlined, applauding that in Lebanon, there often is a great ability for religions to coexist together.

"Yesterday," she commended, "we were not all Christians, but there were also some Druze and Muslims," and yet, she told, we "united together" "without the Church 'cherry picking' among who was present based on their religion or political background."

Rather, "the Church and Christian Society," she underscored, "is here supporting everyone no matter their background, and it is important to be aware of this fact."